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Stray Questions for: J. Courtney Sullivan

J. Courtney Sullivan works in the editorial department at The Times. Her first novel, “Commencement,” will be published later this month.

What are you working on?

I’m writing a novel about three generations of women in a large Boston family. The book is set at their ancestral beach house in Maine and it unfolds over the course of a summer. I am intrigued by the way secrets move through a family, and how events and perceptions from decades earlier continue to influence the way relatives view each other. Homes shape family histories as well. There’s a Dar Williams song about “houses that are haunted, with the kids who lie awake and think about other generations past who used to use that dripping sink.” I was one of those kids.

Research for the book has not exactly been arduous. It has included many trips to Barnacle Billy’s in Perkins Cove, Me., for clam chowder and rum punch; and hours spent observing the members of my own boisterous clan at barbecues and birthday parties. Although since announcing that I’m working on a book about the private lives of an Irish Catholic family, it’s hard to get a Sullivan to talk to me about anything other than the Red Sox.

What is a typical day in your writing life?

When I was in fourth grade, a novelist came to talk to my English class. She told us that being an author meant sitting at the kitchen table in pajamas, drinking tea with the dogs at your feet. I had been writing stories since kindergarten, and later that night I informed my parents that I had it all settled: I would be a novelist, writing each day with the dogs at my feet — pajamas, tea, the works.

Two decades later, I’m a novelist, with a full-time day job and various freelance deadlines in any given week. The hardest part about writing fiction is finding long stretches of time to do it: for me, this means writing mostly on Saturdays and Sundays. But I am always thinking about my characters, jotting down ideas in stolen moments and hoping I’ll be able to make sense of them when the weekend rolls around. At the dry cleaner’s earlier this week, I reached into my purse for the receipt and pulled out a slip of paper that said: “Emily’s mom tells a story of someone who died of an ailment, pre-vaccine? … Patty has a weird thing about dollhouses.”

On Saturdays, I get up early, spread out my notes from the week on the kitchen table, and create stories from them. I’ll write for seven or eight hours, trying hard not to look at Facebook or my cell phone, and succumb to various forms of procrastination, from taking long, meandering walks around Brooklyn to reorganizing the silverware drawer for the ninth time.

What have you been reading or recommending lately?

I recently read “The History of Love,” by Nicole Krauss. It is hard to recommend this marvelous book, as nearly everyone I know has already read it. Still, I try. I have suggested it to my best friend several times, praising the funny and heart-wrenching characters, the intriguing plot, the amazingly precise language — after which she always thanks me and reminds me that she read it four years ago.

At the moment, I’m halfway through an advance copy of Nick Laird’s novel, “Glover’s Mistake.” Much like his wife, Zadie Smith, Laird has amazing powers of observation and an enviable way with words. I read as much poetry as time allows and circumstance dictates: No heartache can pass without a little Dorothy Parker, no thunderstorm without W. H. Auden, no sleepless night without W. B. Yeats. Reading poetry gives me a sense of calm, well-being, and love for humanity — the same stuff more flexible women get from yoga.

This was a pleasure to read. I love the dripping sink analogy. It’s very visceral and a little eerie. Specific poetry for different emotions and events–this is something I need to work into my life. You are full of great ideas!

Why do you promote your own contributors’ novels, New York Times? Didn’t you spend enough space promoting Edmund Andrews’s book? I think this ought to be discussed by the ethics ombudsperson. This is really inappropriate since Sullivan has actually worked for the paper.